Shape Africa

Overview

SHAPE Africa an annual regional meeting of Global Shapers from the Continent of Africa which serves as a forum for change makers to discuss and proffer practical solutions to some of the continent’s most pressing challenges.

SHAPE Africa 2014 – Bold Solutions, was organized by the Abuja Global Shapers and hosted over 120 Global Shapers from over 35 hubs in collaboration with the Lagos and Kano Hub. The 2 day event was held just prior to the World Economic Forum Meeting on Africa, on the 5th and 6th May 2014 in Abuja, Nigeria.

SHAPE Africa 2014 brought together some of the brightest young entrepreneurs, educators, technology experts and agro-preneurs from different regions of the Continent with a pan-African outlook and the zeal to make a tangible impact in their various sectors and industries. The shapers spent two days sharing their experiences, passions and their work with the ultimate goal of crafting and proffering bold solutions to some of the Continent’s greatest challenges.

The Global Shapers network and SHAPE Africa 2014 brought together the brightest youngest minds on the Continent, worth noting as recent paradigm shifts have indicated that harnessing the dynamism of the youth demographic is the key to unlocking the latent potential on the Continent.

SHAPE Africa 2014 Objectives

The objectives for SHAPE Africa 2014 were to:

Spur stronger relationship amongst several different stakeholders

Engage Shapers in catalytic partnerships with fresh ideas to critical development in Africa

Unite hubs across the region with stakeholders for additional, expertise, support, investment and partnership opportunities.

Showcase the Nigerian hubs and Africa at unprecedented levels; providing the opportunity to change the message and perception about Nigeria

Inspire and motivate Shapers to think and do more to change our world.

SHAPE Africa 2014 programme was interactive and was designed to be more as a ‘family re-union’ gathering and less standard conference approach which made it more fun for the participating Global Shapers. The programme incorporated the following elements:

Over 120 shapers, representing 35 countries spent two days together, sharing their experiences and passions and their work, and ultimately proffered BOLD SOLUTIONS to some of the continent’s greatest challenges in the areas of Agriculture, Education, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Listed below are some of the outcomes from this event:

Website developed to tell the story of the kidnapped Nigerian girls, supporting the efforts of the authorities and the community to bring them home (chibokgirls.com)

Development of a Global Shaper farm network; an Africa-wide social media initiative to track the multifaceted effects of investing in people

Creation of an Eco-Funding platform to rally multinationals to donate funding to entrepreneurs

Creation of a Global Shapers Business Network to act as a common market place for African Global Shapers

The Kenyan, Moroccan, and Nigerian Hubs to create an Early Terror Alert Mobile App

The Girl Lead Hub initiative ( a leadership development program for adolescent girls) spearheaded by the Abuja Hub in which the hub works with a select number of adolescent girls for a period of 10-12 weeks to teach them civic engagement and leadership

A Global Shaper from the Johannesburg hub from Chinese ancestry created a media platform to write the stories and insights of African Shapers and Hubs in Chinese and spread it among the Chinese public. This was spun out of her engagement with African Shapers at SHAPE Africa 2014

Accra Hubs, Abuja Hub and other hubs in West Africa to come up with a framework for scaling up Employability and Entrepreneurship ‘EEP’ Workshops as a cross-hub collaboration project

Partnership with one of the Global Shaper Partners, The Abraaj Group and sustainability and strategy for the EEP Workshops

Testimonies

"Mentoring at Ladela School brought me opportunities to help my mentees overcome their career worries and fears. Despite their naiveness, i also learn from their innocence and passion to be an ambassador in their prospective chosen field of profession".